AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Large Enclosure Decontamination of Coxiella burnetii
YOUNG CHOI, Michelle Sunderman, Heather Davis, Cassandra O'Connor, William Richter, Mani Muthalagi, Kevin Hommema, Battelle
Abstract Number: 555 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of Q fever and a Risk Group 3 biological agent that requires a high-containment facility to handle or manipulate this obligate intracellular pathogen. C. burnetii is regarded as a difficult microorganism to decontaminate and has been shown to be highly infectious and persistent outside of a host. Battelle has developed an efficacious method to decontaminate C. burnetii within a large, complex enclosure using hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV). Battelle has also reliably quantitated C. burnetii viability post-decontamination via real-time PCR. The HPV decontamination methods and the quantitative assay for viability were extensively tested in two phases. Phase I: Small-scale study with a Class III biosafety cabinet (i.e., glovebox) that used C. burnetii-spiked material coupons. Phase II: Large-scale study with Battelle’s Aerosol Research and Component Assessment (ARCA) Chamber with the same material coupon types. Both phases analyzed samples taken at seven time-points over the course of a 21-day duration due to the bacteria’s prolonged culture requirements as well as to collect comprehensive data for decontamination efficacy and challenge the quantitative assay for viability. The results from both phases demonstrated the following: (1) C. burnetii was readily recoverable and viable from the control samples after spiking, drying, and weathering for up to 21-days at ambient environmental conditions. (2) Dried C. burnetii was highly susceptible to the various HPV parameters tested. (3) Viability of the control samples was readily differentiated from the non-viable decontaminated samples. (4) Decontamination efficacies for each material coupon type were quantitatively calculated via gene copy numbers from the control versus decontaminated samples. This effort showed that C. burnetii can be effectively decontaminated with a commercially available sterilant technology in a standard glovebox or in a large, complex enclosure like an ARCA Chamber.